Most telecommunication switching devices that have heretofore been available have included terminals for directly connecting incoming and outgoing telecommunications signal cabling directly to the switching device. However, there have recently been introduced switching devices having a modular design in which a variable number of card units are included, with the card units oriented in a vertical direction. An example of such switching devices is the B-STDX 9000 broadband packet switch manufactured by Cascade Communications Corp., Westford, Mass. In this switching device, connections to the card units are to be made via ports arranged in vertical columns, with each column of ports corresponding to a respective card unit. The ports provided in such a switching device are not conveniently arranged for connection with incoming and outgoing signal cables. Although a patch connection panel of conventional design could be interposed between the ports of the switch device and the incoming and outgoing cables, conventional patch panels would provide an inconvenient, cluttered, and very confusing cabling arrangement between the patch panel and the switching device ports.